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'Everyday life pictures will help understand northeast better'

New Delhi, Feb 12 IANS | 1 year ago

There have always been only exotic pictures of the northeastern states presented, so there is a need to present more mundane pictures from the everyday life of the people to understand the region better, said an exhibition curator from Mizoram.

"When one thinks of northeast it is only the exotic landscape, the dresses and the dance that people relate to. To understand these states better, it is important to present more nuanced pictures from the everyday lives of the people which will actually depict the socio-cultural history," Joy. L.K. Pachau, curator of a Feb 11-17 photography exhibition at the India International Centre, said Tuesday evening.

"The photographs that have been collected are from the family albums hence it is a more intimate way to showcase the Mizo society and help people understand it," added Pachau.

According to the curator, unlike the other northeastern states, Mizoram did not have professional anthropologists or photographers.

"As these are images taken by the people themselves, it helps to broaden the way history is written about a particular place. Visuals bring other story to the front," Willem van Schendel, the co-curator of the exhibition told IANS.

The photographs at the exhibition show the everyday ordinary Mizo engagement with their social environment, the transition of the society from colonial rule to the arrival of missionary to the inclusion of the state into the Indian union in 1940 and the longest insurgency between 1960s and 1980s.

"Photographs helps constituting a kind of social history, helps in seeing transformation in different ways and makes an attempt to invoke some kind of reality," said Janaki Nair, professor of historical studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Echoing the same feeling Berenice Ellena, a renowned photographer who has extensively clicked people in Nagaland, said, "Pictures will help build bridge between the northeast and rest of India."